Folli Follie

A Greek court has rejected a request by Greek jewelry maker Folli Follie for temporary protection from its creditors before it completes a restructuring plan, a judicial source said on Monday.

Folli, whose shares have been suspended since May, said last week that management was producing a revised business plan together with Deloitte for restructuring its operations.

The Athens Court of First Instance on Thursday heard a request by troubled jewelry firm Folli Follie for protection from its creditors under Article 106a of Greece's Bankruptcy Code.

Greek jewelry maker Folli Follie said on Thursday it had appointed a new chief executive officer and operations chief for its Asian business, which has been at the center of an accounting scandal that has led to judicial and stock market investigations.

Greek jewelry maker Folli Follie appointed Nikolaos Kanellopoulos as its chairman on Monday to replace one of its founders who stepped down last month amid an investigation into the company's finances.

A financial prosecutor has ordered a freeze of the assets belonging to a chartered accountant of troubled Greek jewelry maker Folli Follie and those of an executive of the company's subsidiary in Hong Kong.

According to reports, prosecutor Yiannis Dragatsis ordered the freeze because the financial executive sent "falsified data from Asia" which the accountant "approved."

A court in Athens ordered the freezing of all bank accounts and safe deposit boxes used by the Koutsolioutsos family, the founders of the troubled jeweler Folli Follie, as well as those of the company's board members, amid a judicial probe into Folli's finances.

Folli Follie bondholders are demanding the departure of its chief executive officer Tzortzis Koutsolioutsos before they start discussing a possible restructuring of the jewelry company's borrowing, Kathimerini understands following Wednesday's meeting of their representatives in London.

The Alvarez & Marsal report on the chaotic discrepancies in the figures of luxury jewelry company Folli Follie appears to concern the foreign funds that have invested in Greece or are monitoring it, as well as fellow Greek listed companies, sources say. This is despite the largely anticipated outcome of the troubled company's case.

Folli Follie faces the threat of closure following the revelation of a hole of $290 million in the luxury jewelry company's cash reserves last year and $1 billion in Asia sales. These discrepancies are even greater than the most pessimistic estimates, including those by hedge fund QCM, which brought the case to light last May.

The benchmark of the Athens bourse managed to top 700 points on Wednesday after 12 sessions below the psychologically important level, as the situation at Folli Follie became clearer and Greek bond yields continued to ease. This time it was non-bank blue chips that drove the main index and turnover higher.